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Why nuclear energy is not an answer to global warming

Talk from Dr. Alex Rosen, Medact-Conference

On December 9th, Dr. Alex Rosen, Vice-President of IPPNW Germany, was invited to talk on the subject of nuclear energy and climate change at the MedAct Conference "Healthy Planet - Better World". The subject of his talk was "Why nuclear power ist not an answer to global warming". In it, he argued that nuclear power was not a good investment and that the true and long-term costs and effects of nuclear power far outweigh its potential short-term benefits. He named the detrimental effects of uranium mining and nuclear waste on the environment an on public health and listed the most relevant studies on the effects of uranium mining and civil nuclear energy on childhood leukemia, lung cancer and other radiation-related diseases. He explained the underestimated risks of nuclear catastrophes and talked about the nuclear legacy that we are leaving to future generations. He also cited studies showing that nuclear energy is in fact irrelevant when it comes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions or alleviating climate change. The inextricable links between nuclear power and nuclear weapons, brought to light in the common interests between the civil nuclear industry and the British Trident nuclear submarine program recently was also discussed, as were the attempts of the nuclear lobby to create fake citizen groups and NGO's in order to greenwash its business model. His presentation ended with an outlook to what could be described as a real energy revolution: modern energy conservation and efficiency methods, combined with 100% renewable energy generation, feeding flexible, distributed, community-based smart grid systems that would offer energy autonomy and independence of fossil and nuclear fuel imports. The main arguments of his talk can be found in the attached document.